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Even if you don't have extensive research experience (which may hurt your application in and of itself), you should be able to get strong letters from your professors. It may involve some effort, but it is generally possible. I had one letter from my one recent research experience and two letters from people who taught me in class only, but who I visited during office hours and discussed subject-related topics and my plans for grad school with. By the time letters were due, these people were strong advocates for me, and they are people I am still in contact with and now consider friends, since we are no longer in teacher-student relationships (and I no longer attend the school where they teach). I realize this is easier to accomplish in some schools than others, but no matter where you are, it does require more than just attending class and "blending in." On the other hand, the first time I applied to schools after undergrad, I was pleasantly surprised that profs who I'd thought wouldn't even know my name not only knew who I was but were happy to write letters for me. I did not get copies of those letters, but I got accepted to the school I was applying to, so they must have been better than "did well in class." And this was also a year+ after graduating (but I was in a smallish major).

That may not help much . . . many US readers may not know what that means either. If they are before college marks, they may not matter at all. Your GRE looks good, though.

Yes, you need to retake -- there is really no reasonable excuse for someone with your background not to be able to score better on a test of what is basically not much more than high school level math . . .

My guess is it might not kill your application (it's still a decent score...), but you will definitely be competing with people with higher Q scores. It will depend on how much each particular program cares. Some seem more score-focused than others. It is disappointing that you were not closer to your practice scores -- you would probably get better scores, if you can find the time to squeeze in a retake. Good luck.

Agree - this is not something you should spend time worrying about. Hopefully, you chose well, and this recommender will, indeed, have good things to say about you.

If the instructions are NOT to contact professors, why would you?

I agree with the first responder -- NO.

I applied to more programs than that at one school, because I could not move out of town. It was fine. The units all operated individually, even when they shared some faculty. No one seemed to think there was anything wrong with my approach, and before I had settled on which programs to apply to, I was given suggestions for additional programs in the same school to consider.

Some schools with lump all undergrad classes together when calculating your undergraduate GPA, but it's hard to know which schools might do this without asking each school you're looking at. Relevant undergrad classes could help if you have areas where you are lacking, but that doesn't seem to apply in your situation. Grad classes could help, but even they might not be necessary.

That is true -- but if having this many classes is stressing you out too much, you can drop. It's allowed, and it could make the rest of your semester much happier. Also, sometimes even though you are doing well enough (in this case a , you may feel you are not learning as much as you'd like or need to. Retaking later can be a sensible thing to do in such a situation. There will be enough times when it will not be so easy to change a situation for your own benefit -- save your "manning up" for those times (I thought that was kind of a stupid/unhelpful comment). It's not as though you are in danger of losing financial aid, or graduating late because you need this class, or have a pattern of regularly dropping classes . . . so why not?

I am going to disagree -- drop the stupid class. You'll still have a full credit load. You have time to take more classes. You don't need a 3.9+, but you do need a sane lifestyle. And time to rest, socialize, and pursue other opportunities that might arise. Dropping 2 classes in your college career will not matter a bit, in my opinion.

If you don't already have research experience, you should accept the opportunity to work with the prof at your home uni. Research experience is critical for getting accepted to grad school.

I was out of undergrad 20+ years, so I did not bother even thinking of getting recommendations from my undergrad school. Instead, I took community college classes and did a summer internship at a local university, and got letters from those experiences. One program mentioned that letters from "people they didn't know" hurt my application, but I got into a program that is a good fit for me, so it worked out. I could have taken courses at the local U, instead of the CC, but they are MUCH more expensive and much less personal, so it would have been hard to form the relationships necessary to get good letters.

Yes, they matter. How important they are to the programs you're interested in . . . impossible to tell.

It probably is worth retaking. . .

Another "no" vote.

I got through first year reasonably OK, but now I am looking at switching research groups and all those feelings of inadequacy are surfacing again. I'll bet that even though everyone else APPEARS to be doing just fine, they are going through confidence struggles of their own. We all seem to have them. Just keep trying and you'll get to where you want to be.

I can't imagine that schools are unaware of the changeable nature of the percentiles -- it is not a new issue. It is also not just unique to you, so don't worry about it. As long as you report your raw score accurately, you should be ok.

Yes, the MS sounds like a good idea. As the poster above noted, it will be even harder for you as an international student, even if you had impeccable credentials. And when you do apply, you should probably retake and try to get a higher Q score (your score is certainly good, but for EECS, the score averages are just crazy).

You have a chance. In my (admittedly more open-minded than most) program, in a cohort of 5, we have 2 in their 20s, 2 in their 30s, and 1 in her 40s. Good luck!

I think you could just say that your interests have changed and you no longer think the school is a good fit for you.

That's more the range I expected . . . Here's another set: http://psychandneuro.duke.edu/graduate/training/clinical#stats

167 is about 97th percentile -- I don't think your verbal score needs to be that high to get into any program anywhere.

It almost sounds as though it's too early to really know. Rotations are stressful. You aren't really part of the group, you don't know anything, you don't even know where anything is! I think you might like being part of a research group, once you were actually settled in. The first year of grad school is not easy.

I didn't study either -- I was having trouble getting started with studying. So I took the GRE in June as a baseline, figuring it would force me to study to do better later in the summer. I never bothered retaking :-)